


And It Was Enchanting To Meet You

by DevasenasWife



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: All Obi-Wan Kenobis in the multiverse enjoy tea, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Astronomy, Ben is a nerd, Email dating, Falling In Love, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, Love Simon inspired sort of, M/M, No beta we saunter downwards like Crowley, Obi-Wan is Ben, Qui-gon isn’t a horrible parent in this one, So is Anakin but he won’t admit it, We won’t be seeing much of him anyway, Yes the title is a Taylor swift song, bear with me guys, but he’s dead so, passing notes, references to Star Wars canon but in this au it’s called space wars, who is that mysterious stranger that keeps writing to me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevasenasWife/pseuds/DevasenasWife
Summary: Ben is at Coruscant University’s library, researching for an astronomy project when a note card falls out of the book he finds, written by someone who had used the book before him. The stranger is also working on a project for the same class, and Ben is intrigued by what little he can glean of their personality through the card. Determined to find out who the stranger is, Ben writes back.Anakin is both suspicious of and flattered by a stranger’s interest in him and the note card he accidentally left in a book at the campus library. But as they keep on writing to each other, he finds himself falling in love with the other person.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Garen Muln, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 17
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back, and with a new username! Honestly this probably won’t go anywhere unless people want to see more of it, so please leave comments!

_He was floating face up in the water, warm rays of the sun landing on his exposed skin. To his left was his father, running tests on whatever creature had caught his fancy at the moment. He closed his eyes, letting the melodic baritone of Qui-Gon chase away his worries. He was alright, here in the water. He could just stay here and pretend, pretend that everything was alright and his father was still alive and-_

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Groaning, Ben swiped his hand in the general direction of his phone to stop the infernal alarm. He stayed in bed for another few minutes, chasing away the ache that came with dreaming of his late father. The accident had been six years ago, when Ben was fifteen. Qui-Gon had been driving down to the supermarket to get groceries. Ben expected that he would be back home in fifteen minutes with a new packet of the garlic naan that Qui-Gon knew his son loved. Instead, Ben stayed that night at the hospital where Qui-Gon breathed his last, holding his hand.

Ben was then adopted by a close friend of Qui-Gon’s, Tahl Uvain, who he lived with until he turned eighteen. That year he had moved his meager possessions into Coruscant University’s freshman dorms. Three years later, he was a junior majoring in marine biology. Qui-Gon had worked with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network for a living, and Ben found that working with injured wildlife reminded him of the good memories with his father. It didn’t take long for him to know that marine biology was his passion. He shifted to look at the time, 7:48 am, ten minutes later than his usual wake-up time. The professor for Plankton Ecology, Plo Koon, wouldn’t even let him into the building if he was late. Sighing, Ben got up to go take a shower. 

Thirteen minutes later, an out of breath Ben rushed into Koon’s lecture hall and thankfully went unnoticed due to the large number of students who were also piling in around the same time. He noticed the dark bags under his friend Siri’s eyes, and noted with amusement that it seemed that the latecomers were the same ones who were up until 3 am partying. 

“Take out your notebooks, everyone!” Professor Koon announced, and soon Ben lost himself in the lecture. 

———————————-———————————-————————————

On the other side of the campus, Anakin Skywalker was taking a test on computed torque control. He mentally cursed as he flipped his paper over only to see ten more open ended questions. It wasn’t as if Anakin hated robotic engineering; on the contrary, he had won a scholarship to Coruscant University based on his performance in state and national level robotics competitions. The scholarship was the only reason a farmboy like him could even afford to go to such a prestigious school. However, Anakin saw no reason to be taking a test at 8 in the morning, especially one this long. Professor Giett had gleefully announced a pop quiz, and Anakin thought it was revenge for the highly offensive student groupchat he had discovered the day before. 

A few minutes later, Anakin finished the questions and turned in his test. Thankfully there was only five more minutes of class left, and he didn’t have to sit at his desk doing nothing for a long period of time. Anakin checked his schedule, and almost groaned out loud. That was right, he had the half-year astronomy elective. If it were up to him, he wouldn’t have even bothered with something as useless as astronomy. What did it matter to him that the Sun was made of hydrogen and helium, or that the universe would end in five billion years? _He_ wouldn’t be there five billion years later. But no, Coruscant University had a gen ed graduation requirement and the only other choices that fit in his schedule were physical therapy (which he had had enough of for the past two years of his life, given that he still had to attend sessions with his physical therapist for his prosthetic arm) and fucking philosophy. Anakin could do math and stuff, but he couldn’t write for shit. He was not taking a course about writing about one’s morals or whatever. So that left astronomy, which honestly wasn’t even that bad, just boring. 

When it came time to leave, Anakin gathered up his books and walked out the door, in no rush to get to Professor Yaddle’s class. The September air was warm, but not the unbearable heat of the summer months. It was nice, actually. Anakin stopped to enjoy the feeling of the breeze, knowing that this weather wouldn’t last and in a few months he would be sick and miserable while it snowed outside. A student walked past him, munching on an apple. The scent of the apple and the climate prompted him to remember the times he came home from school as a boy, eagerly awaiting a bite of his mother’s delicious apple pie. They were especially ripe around this time, the harvest season, and Shmi had always indulged her son when it came to her baking. Oh, how he missed her- 

Anakin cut off that train of thought right there. His therapist always encouraged him to talk about his feelings, or to at least acknowledge them, but sometimes he took the easy way out by repressing them. That way it wasn’t painful. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and continued his journey to the astronomy dome. 

—————————————————————————————————————

Ben walked into his second class of the day, astronomy with Professor Yaddle. He had only chosen the class to fulfill graduation requirements, but soon realized that the class wasn’t half bad and Yaddle was a great teacher. He particularly enjoyed the astronavigation unit they did last week; it had great real-world applications to his major. 

Dropping his bag onto the floor next to him, Ben took a seat next to Garen Muln, a friend he had made in the few weeks since the class started. Garen wanted to work with space exploration in some way, so he took the class seriously. However, they had lots of fun on projects. Speaking of which, 

“I think we’re starting a new project,” Ben mentioned, looking at Yaddle’s notes on the board and the large stack of papers on her desk. 

Garen perked up. “Me too, and I hope it’s a partner project,” he said, smiling at Ben. 

Ben grinned back, before Yaddle quieted the class. 

“I see some of you have read the board, that’s good. For the next two or so weeks, you will be working on a research project.” 

Murmurs broke out around the room, some excited and some annoyed. 

“You will be looking at various myths about space or astrophysics, and proving them wrong with evidence and detailed explanations. This is worth 10% of your overall grade this semester. And yes, you may work with a partner,” Yaddle added. 

Ben turned to Garen, raising his eyebrows. Garen smiled and nodded. They were working together, then. 

—————————————————————————————————————

_Ugh._ Anakin took back every positive thing he had ever thought of the class. This project was a waste of time. He glanced around the room, heart sinking when it appeared both of the people he interacted with in class had chosen to partner with each other. Well, it seemed like he was working alone. 

Yaddle was passing around writing rubrics, with all of the things she would be looking for. Once one landed on his desk, he glanced at the page requirement. _Please don’t be long_ … 

Anakin couldn’t resist rolling his eyes. He was supposed to write ten pages on what exactly? He racked his brain for ideas, but couldn’t come up with anything. He then unlocked his phone and typed in ‘myths about astronomy’. Thankfully Google was there to save his grade. Anakin squinted at the ‘fact’ on the first website that had come up. 

LIGHTSPEED TRAVEL IS ACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE

Well, at least he knew the creators of all of those sci-fi space movies didn’t take an astronomy class. He figured it was a good concept to do his project on. If he ran out of science-y words, he could always write about _Space Wars_ , a movie series that came out in the 90s, and how it apparently was not scientifically realistic at all. 

Before he knew it, class was over, and Anakin realized he didn’t have anything to do until after 12 pm. _I’ll just head to the campus library then_ , he thought to himself. Normally he’d just find a bunch of websites online for sources and call it a day, but Yaddle had made it a requirement to find at least two text sources. _Hopefully Nu knows where to find books on lightspeed travel_. 

—————————————————————————————————————

Ben walked into the campus library at exactly 7 pm with a herbal tea in his hand (he was practically addicted to the stuff), and a laptop bag slung over his shoulder. Garen was supposed to meet him in twenty minutes, but he figured he could get some extra research done before. They had chosen to do their project on time travel, since they both were science fiction nerds and wanted to know more about what actual science said about it. 

He waved at Jocasta Nu, the director of the library, and was about to keep walking towards a desk when she called at him. 

“Kenobi! Are you taking the astronomy elective?” 

Ben nodded. 

Dr. Nu sighed and got up from her desk. “I’ve had so many students come in today asking for books. Honestly, I do appreciate Professor Yaddle since if it weren’t for the text requirement, none of them would have even stepped foot in here, but I didn’t expect the sheer number of students.” She led Ben up an elevator and through a few rooms before they stopped at a section of bookshelves. About fifteen students that Ben recognized from his class were already lounging on the beanbags or couches available, or going through the books on the bookshelf. “Here’s most of the space related books. Astronomy, cosmology, astrobiology, you name it.”

Ben thanked the director, and Dr. Nu went back downstairs. He turned his attention to the bookshelves, and searched the titles for anything related to time travel. After about a minute, he noticed an open book lying face down just peeking out from underneath a shelf. He scoffed at whoever would disrespect a book in such a way, and pulled it out with the intention to put it back in its correct place. He could hear his best friend Quinlan Vos laughing at him for getting so heated over a fallen book of all things. 

As he turned it over in his hands, Ben saw a large note card fall out. He bent down and picked it up. It was clearly someone’s notes for their project, which seemed to be about the physics of lightspeed travel. Intrigued, Ben read through the notes. The first thing he noticed was the person’s snarky comments about what was written in the book. They didn’t seem to care at all about the class or the project, which only made the comments funnier to Ben. The second thing he noticed was the _Space Wars_ references. Ben had been a fan since he was a child, and it seemed the other person knew what they were talking about as well. The last thing he noticed were the equations and diagrams drawn. _Definitely majoring in an engineering field_ , he thought. 

Ben was seized with the sudden urge to find out who the person was. He didn’t have many friends in the class other than Garen, and the person definitely had the same sense of humor as him. Ben also loved mysteries, and he was excited to begin solving one. 

_First clue_ , he thought. _They’re in astronomy with me. Next clue, their project is on lightspeed travel._

Ben glanced down at the book that the note card had fallen out of. Given the position it was in, and the fact that the note card was still in the book, Ben assumed that the person had to leave in a hurry, meaning they would be back for the book sometime soon. 

Ben turned the note card over, and began writing his own note, addressing it to the mystery person. 

**You’re just now realizing that** **_Space Wars_ ** **is unrealistic? The talking teddy bears or the magical Force didn’t clue you in?**

**-BK**

He placed the note card back into the book and put the book underneath the shelf where it originally was. Ben smiled at the thought of the mystery person trying to figure out who BK was, then realized that there was no guarantee the person would even respond. What if they just thought Ben was a weirdo or a creep? And how would Ben know they wrote back? Sighing, Ben walked over to sit on a beanbag, pulling out his laptop. Garen arrived a minute later, and Ben put all thoughts of the mysterious stranger out of his head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I continue this?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the awesome comments! I will definitely be adding a few more chapters to this!

Anakin stumbled onto the third floor of the library somewhere around one in the morning. He frowned as he tried to remember what shelf he had left his book on. All of them looked the same anyway. Maybe he shouldn’t have drunk that much earlier. 

It wasn’t like he was an alcoholic or anything, he and Aayla just had a few beers. Although, he thought, watching how the books seemed to be spinning, that seemed to be too many beers. 

Anakin reached the shelf, and after a few minutes of furious searching he tripped over a book on the ground, and his weakened balance led to him toppling over and crashing to the ground. 

“Shhhhhhhh!” A girl sitting a few feet away from him, nose deep in a book with a human skeleton (or at least he assumed it was human) on the front, shushed him.

Anakin flipped her off and looked at the book he had tripped over, and let out a happy giggle. All was right in the world! It was the very book he was trying to find! 

He grabbed it, and opened it to check if his notes were still inside. He wasn’t going to do all that work over again. The note card was still there, but it had been flipped to its backside, and ooh! There were words on there that Anakin hadn’t written, in a font that was not Anakin’s! 

Someone else had found his book! Anakin suddenly felt self conscious about his notes, even though he knew it was stupid. Who was going to judge someone over freaking force diagrams? He forced his eyes to focus on the words, which was a much harder task to do when the words were blurry as fuck. 

He blinked at the message once he finished reading it. Had someone left him a note roasting him on his  _ Space Wars _ opinions? Who the hell was this guy? Or girl. Or being. He totally supported non-binary and-  _ focus, Anakin! That’s not important now! _

What was he to do now? He could go back to his dorm room and continue working on his project, forgetting that this ever happened. And frankly, with the headache he was starting to get, he probably wouldn’t remember any of this in the morning. But… Anakin wasn’t in a great decision making state of mind. He squinted at the initials. BK. 

Anakin wanted to know who this BK was, and how dare they insult Space Wars! But how would he find them in a university of more than fifteen thousand students? He looked back at the book, and he felt like one of those cartoon characters when a lightbulb flashed above their head. Of course! If they were looking at the book, then they had to be doing an astronomy project as well! They were in his class! 

Anakin suddenly wanted to talk to the stranger. He was lonely in that class; he had Padme and Sabe to talk to but they weren’t really friends. How could he write back when he didn’t know who to write to? He could leave a note in the library, but there was no guarantee that the person would read it. For all Anakin knew, BK had found their two required texts and was never coming back to this section of the library. But they would surely come back to the library in general, right? BK would have classes other than astronomy. Maybe he could put another note on the bulletin board… 

That was it! The board in the base floor of the library was something  _ everyone  _ looked at, and so would the stranger! Anakin took a moment to admire his genius. Maybe he  _ should _ drink more often. That settled, Anakin put the original note card in his pocket to work on later, and pulled out a new one from his backpack. 

**It’s a movie for kids dumbass I already knew it was unrealistic. :/ And plus I was making connections to my project. ^-^ I bet lightspeed travel is much cooler than whatever planet you’re researching. ;)**

**AS**

Anakin knew sober him would stress out over the grammar issues and the emojis, but he didn’t care. The emojis conveyed his emotions and feelings at the moment. 

He marched downstairs to the bulletin board, and stapled his note to it. Dr. Nu was wide awake even at this hour - Anakin was sure the woman was an immortal being who lived in the library - and raised an eyebrow at him. 

Anaki didn’t know how to respond so he saluted her and left the library as fast as he could. Dr. Nu had always intimidated him. 

—————————————————————————————————————

“Do you know anyone in this class who’s doing a project on lightspeed travel?” Ben whispered to Garen in class the next day. 

“No, sorry.” He responded. Ben knew that Garen probably wouldn’t know but it was worth a shot anyway. 

Ben leaned back in his seat to observe the students in the lecture hall. Since the project was not to be done in-class, Yaddle had started the next unit about the origins of the universe. It was somewhat more interesting than the first couple of units, so there were less people asleep, and Ben could see more faces. 

He didn’t have a clue what the stranger looked like, but Ben let himself wonder anyway. Were they the girl in the front with a Space Wars t-shirt? Was the stranger the red-headed boy two rows to the left of him who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else? Or were they the muscular blonde on the other side of the hall with a prosthetic arm? He stared at the scar on the latter man’s face for some time, and decided that he looked more like a member of a biker gang than an engineering nerd. Well, he could cross off himself and Garen from the list, which left him at around 83 possible candidates who could have left their notes in the library. Ben sighed, and refocused back into Yaddle’s lecture. 

—————————————————————————————————————

Anakin gave up on paying attention to Yaddle. This topic was bringing back memories of his mother that he simultaneously did and didn’t want to remember. Shmi had always said he exploded into being the way the universe was created. Anakin always thought that meant she had a long and difficult labor. Growing up, she loved to call him her little supernova. 

He toyed with his prosthetic for a while, enjoying the startled reaction of the woman sitting next to him when it came all the way off, then played some games on his phone. In the last twenty minutes of class, he remembered the note he had found last night.  _ BK _ . They were in this lecture hall with him somewhere, right now. Anakin gently nudged the woman who had gasped at his arm. 

“Do you know anyone in here with the initials BK?” He asked. The woman shook her head. Anakin turned to Padme and Sabe behind him. 

“Do you guys know anyone with the initials B and K in this class?” 

Padme thought for a moment. “There’s Brittany Koon, that’s Professor Koon’s granddaughter.” She pointed at a girl vaguely to her right. Anakin didn’t know who Professor Koon was, but he made a mental note of the girl. 

“Over there is Ben Kenobi, he’s the one in front of Ben Solo.” Anakin knew who Solo was, he was easy to spot wearing all black and about two pounds of eyeliner. His emo name was apparently Kyle Ren or something. He moved his eyes downward to see the Ben Kenobi that Padme was referring to. Kenobi was sporting a ginger mullet which somehow looked good on him, and was wearing a comfortable looking sweater. Yet what he was doing with a sweater on in September, Anakin didn’t know. 

Padme continued. “And the last BKs I know are the Kornfeld twins, Brenda and Bacon. I don’t know if his first name is actually Bacon or if that’s his nickname, though.” The twins were identical copies of each other and were vigorously taking down notes to whatever Yaddle was saying. 

“Thanks, Padme!” Anakin smiled at her. 

“No problem,” she responded. 

—————————————————————————————————————

Ben returned to the library after astronomy, with a small hope that the stranger had written back. As he walked in, he glanced at the bulletin board for news about campus events. It looked the same as yesterday except for a lone note card stapled up there. 

He approached the board slowly, reading what was written, and felt his mouth involuntarily curl up into a grin. They  _ had _ written back, and now Ben had another clue: their initials were AS. Ben couldn’t describe why he chose to do what he did next, but somehow felt it was right. He hoped the stranger would return the gesture. 

—————————————————————————————————————

Anakin stared at the email address neatly written underneath his drunken scrawl. Was this some sort of joke? A prank? Because either it was that or the other person was genuinely interested in him, either platonically or romantically. Did they want to be friends? Was insulting Anakin their idea of making friends? 

Honestly, Anakin wouldn’t know what the social customs were. The few friends he had back home were really only his friends because they grew up together, and there was no one else on the vast farmlands that their families owned. So maybe this was… normal?

Anakin wanted to get to the bottom of this, and immediately emailed the stranger from the gmail app on his phone. He hesitated over what to send, and eventually sent a simple, ‘hey -AS’. 

Moments later, Anakin grinned when he saw that the stranger had emailed back, almost as if they were waiting for him, ‘Hello there -BK’. 


End file.
